Dmitry Medvedev was once derided as an “American boy” because, as president, he advocated a rapprochement between Russia and the West. He was also the one who called for comprehensive modernization of Russia at the time. For a short time he seemed to be a beacon of hope for a liberalization of Russia.

Medvedev belongs to the inner circle of the Russian leadership. He has been loyal to Putin for decades, but owes his position at the core of the power elite solely to Putin. Pleasing Putin is therefore Medvedev’s most urgent task.

Medvedev: The former “American boy” is already concerned with the time after Putin

This partly explains Medvedev’s aggressive comments on the Ukraine war. On the other hand, Medvedev must also aim to remain at the heart of Russia’s power elite in the post-Putin era, whenever it begins, even without presidential patronage.

That explains another part of the warmongering. Medvedev is urgently trying to destroy the image of a pro-Western liberal. He wants to please the nationalist organs of state power – the secret services and the military. But there are also observers who believe that Medvedev has an unclear relationship to alcohol; this explains the aggressive, sometimes absurd tirades.

Medvedev spreads his tirades primarily on Telegram, but also on Twitter and on the Russian media platform Vkontakte. At the center of his incitement is always the “Nazi government” in Kiev and the alleged attempt by the “collective” West to smash Russia into its component parts and destroy Russian civilization.

Both key arguments are repeatedly linked to threats that Russia will not shy away from using nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine. Medvedev is thus following the official narrative, which the Russian leadership constantly modifies and adapts to its own population.

Medvedev’s love of nuclear threats

Medvedev’s latest statement is a long commentary in the Russian government newspaper “Rossiyskaya gazeta“. Again he swears that Russia is in an existential conflict with the West. This “total confrontation” will take a long time, he immediately destroys (unjustified) hopes of a rapprochement.

He registers a “tectonic break” that has taken place globally over ideas about the future. Medvedev describes the West as “undoubtedly complete idiots”. Then it comes back – his love of nuclear threats. Medvedev said that a global nuclear war is not only possible but also probable. But this is a war that will know no winner.

Medvedev also claims that Russia has never tried to contain NATO. The Russian demand was only not to include parts of the former Soviet Union. The former contradicts Russian calls for mandatory security guarantees, which were put forward in December 2021. NATO was asked to refrain from any further expansion.

Medvedev calls for annihilation of “Kyiv Nazi regime”

However, Russia is ready to look for “reasonable compromises”. But he sees Western concessions in this that don’t sound like compromises: there should be no more “anti-Russia”; This means Ukraine. The Russian interests should be taken into account as much as possible (!).

Then Medvedev becomes brusque again and demands that the “Kiev Nazi regime” must be “destroyed”. “Thrown away like a rotten piece of lard in the dustbin of world history.” The West must accept that if it wants to prevent an “apocalyptic end to our civilization”.

So this is what Medvedev sees as a possible compromise? He doesn’t see himself as an optimist anyway.

This treatise by Medvedev is again full of crude views and claims; his other verbal hate speech has been milder. Even if he describes the Council of Europe, the International Criminal Court and the OSCE as “freaks”. One should not drink too much alcohol.